Out of control
by Marems
Summary: What started with a headache turned out to be something much worse. Ed is losing control over his alchemical powers, putting everyone around him in danger. His friends must find a way to stop him. But sometimes things are easier said than done.
1. Chapter 1

I'm back with my second fanfic! This is inspired by a movie. I won't tell you which one since it's much more fun to let you guess.

Hope you enjoy!

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The headache hadn't been that bad when he had gone to sleep eight hours earlier. He had thought that it would be gone in the morning. Sleep had always helped. But today seemed like an exception. The headache was way worse. It was like someone was pounding against the inside of his skull. He put a hand against his forehead. It felt warmer than normal.

He groaned and rolled over to his side, feeling slightly nauseous. It felt like he was getting sick, something he didn't have time for. They needed to continue their search.

The door to the hotel room was suddenly opened, followed by a familiar clanking noise.

"Nii-san, get up! You're supposed to be at Mustang's office in less than an hour!" It was Al.

Ed didn't protest and pushed himself up to a sitting position. He lifted his left hand and began to rub his eye. It felt a little weird to use his left hand since he was right-handed, but rubbing your eyes with an automail wasn't very comfortable.

Ed stood up and yawned loudly while stretching. He cracked his neck before searching for his clothes, which he had carelessly thrown on the floor. Al would have grimaced at the sound if he had been in a human body.

Al sat down on one of the beds, which creaked in protest because of the weight, and watched his older brother who seemed to be searching for something. If Ed would fold his clothes and put them on a chair or something instead of spreading them around the room, this wouldn't have to happen. He thought about pointing that out, but decided to leave it. If he didn't find what he was searching for, Ed would throw a fit over it. And pointing that out would make it worse. Al could already hear Ed's frustrated sighs and groans.

"Damn it! Where is my sock?!" Ed exploded. "I don't have time for this!" He was now on the floor and searching under the bed. "Where's the fucki- oh there it is!" He pulled his sock on his flesh foot and then his shoes before standing up to grab the red coat hanging on one of the hooks. Al watched as he put his coat on his bare upper body. His brother must be tired.

"Uhm, nii-san I think-"

"C'mon Al, we need to get going so I can grab something to eat first!" Ed cut off and darted out of the room. Al sighed and picked Ed's shirt up from the floor before walking in the same direction.

Ed hurried to the local store just across the street to buy a sandwich he could eat on the way. The cashier eyed him weirdly while Ed paid and he felt annoyed at this, but decided to ignore it. He would need the energy at the Colonel's office.

Al was waiting just outside the store. Ed looked in confusion at the navy blue shirt he was holding in his hand. His head was still pounding, making think straight harder than usual. But realization hit him as he stared down at himself and saw that he was walking around with a bare upper body under his coat. Alex Armstrong sprang to his mind. That man was deeply in love with his shining (Ed believed they were oiled) muscles and took every moment to flash them. Ed didn't want to be compared to the man. Therefore he quickly snatched the shirt from Al.

"Why didn't you tell me, Al!" Ed said while pulling on his shirt.

"I tried to tell you, but you were in such a hurry," Al mumbled quietly.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Let's go to the bastard's office and get this over with. I'm already in a bad mood." Ed rubbed his forehead. Al noticed this.

"Are you alright, nii-san?"

He frowned and stopped rubbing.

"Yeah, just a headache. Nothing to worry about," Ed assured. "Must be lack of water or something."

"Well, you're pretty careless when it comes to drinking water," Al pointed out. "And milk."

"Which I'll never drink," Ed said and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "And don't you dare say something about my height!"

"I wasn't going to."

"Right," Ed mumbled and folded his hands behind his head.

Half an hour later, they were standing outside the Colonel's office. Ed was tempted to just throw the door open since he knew from experience that this behavior would annoy the man. And annoying him was amusing. Al, however, had already foreseen what his older brother was about to do and quickly knocked on the door.

"Come in," the Colonel answered and Al opened the door.

"Hello Colonel Must-" Al, the ever polite one, began.

"Hello Colonel bastard!" Ed cut off and walked past the huge suit of armor while fishing up a folded paper from his pocket.

"Fullmetal," Roy Mustang sighed in annoyance.

Ed handed over the folded paper to Mustang, who eyed it for a second before looking up at Ed, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"And this supposed to be?"

Ed rolled his eyes.

"The report you wanted from the last mission. What else?"

Roy put the paper down before entwining his fingers and leaning his chin against them. There was a moment of awkward silence before he opened his mouth.

"Rewrite it."

It was the most unbelievable thing Ed had heard.

"What?!"

"You heard me. Rewrite it."

Ed stared at his superior officer like he was out of his mind.

"You haven't even read it!" Ed protested loudly and Al shifted uncomfortably on the couch, ashamed of his brother's behavior.

"Because I don't need to." There was a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. Sometimes it was just too much fun to torture the kid.

Ed's headache was getting worse.

"What do you mean?"

Roy leaned back in his chair and picked up the paper, holding it between his index finger and middle finger.

"You should know by now that the reports need to be nice and flat. But this," he unfolded the paper and held it up demonstratively. "is wrinkled because you thought it was a good idea to fold it."

"Oh come on!" Ed whined and put his hands against the Colonel's desk. "You're just messing with me!"

"No, I'm just following the rules. They won't archive this," he said. "So stop protesting and rewrite it. That's an order."

Something very unusual happened. It was so sudden. The pounding in his head increased. He instinctively shut his eyes tight and put a hand against his forehead while the other one remained against the desk. Besides the pain in his head, he could feel something else. It was like he was trapped inside a cage, desperate to get out of there. It lasted for only a split second before it was gone. He slowly opened his eyes to see a very surprised Colonel staring down at the desk, his mouth slightly opened.

"What the hell, Fullmetal?"

Ed followed his gaze. What he saw made his eyes widen in surprise. There was a crack in the desk. It was crawling from under his hand and a few centimeters towards the Colonel.

"What happened?" Ed asked and Roy narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"I think _I_ should be the one asking that. You just used alchemy to put a crack in my desk. Care to explain why?"

"Uh.. what? I.. I don't know! I didn't do it on purpose!" Ed said, confusion in his voice.

Al was now standing up and peering over his brother's shoulder to see what was going on.

"Well, you better fix this anyway." Roy folded his arms over his chest and leaned back again.

"I was going to!" Ed growled before clapping his hands and slamming them against the desk, quickly repairing the damage he had caused. "There you go! Happy?"

"Not until you hand in the report. Rewrite it and hand it in later today."

Ed just sighed in defeat.

"Alright."

Roy watched as the two brothers disappeared out the door. He had observed something unusual today. Ed hadn't clapped his hands like he usually did.

"What happened in there?" Al asked as they walked out of the building. Ed was keeping his eyes locked on the ground, thinking.

"I'm not really sure. My headache got worse for only a split second and then there was this crack in the desk next time I opened my eyes."

"Your headache got worse? How are you feeling now?" Al asked with a worried tone in his voice.

"I'm fine, Al. It feels better now," Ed assured. "The funny thing, well except the Colonel's expression," he smirked a little at the image before getting serious again. "is that I don't think I clapped my hands before doing it."

Al's thoughts wandered back to the office.

"You're right. I didn't hear nor see you clap," he said thoughtfully. "Nii-san, do you think your alchemy powers are developing or something?"

"I'm not sure. Would be pretty cool though." Ed grinned. "Why not just try and see if it works now." He stopped and was just about to clap his hands out of habit, but hindered himself and put them against the ground immediately instead.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. Still nothing happened.

A middle aged man walked past the two and couldn't help but stare at the huge suit of armor that was standing next to a boy who was kneeling down and slamming his hands against the ground over and over. Ed would have been provoked if he had seen the weird look he gave them, but Al wasn't as easily provoked and just waved to the man. He didn't wave back though, but muttered something like 'weird kids with strange interests these days'.

"Doesn't seem to work," Ed stated as he stood. "Too bad."

"It's still impressive that you can transmute without having to draw a circle," Al pointed out.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't mind some development," he said before a low growl was heard from his stomach. "Ah whatever. I'm starving right now so let's find a place to eat."

They found a stand were they ordered food. Well, Ed did at least. Al didn't have to eat after all, unless he had to pretend in order to keep their secret safe. It was an unpleasant experience having to throw sticky and mushy food inside his armor since both he and Ed had to clean the inside afterwards. Unless he wanted to wander around, stinking like a trashcan. They had once forgotten that he had "eaten" and therefore not cleaned. Ed had gagged at the stench while he had helped him scrub away rotten food.

"And a pitcher of water, please," Ed added. He wanted to drown the damn headache that still seemed to be lurking in his head.

The food soon arrived and Ed eagerly began to eat. Al just stared at his older brother, his behavior a bit embarrassing. Not only did he eat fast, he ate enormous portions. Why Ed hadn't gotten fat yet was a big mystery. It must be against the laws of nature being able to eat that much and not grow, neither in height nor width.

"I'm stuffed! I think I need to burp," Ed said and leaned back in the chair with a hand on his stomach.

"Don't! Or else I'll walk from here and pretend that you and I are not related," Al warned and stood up.

Ed just snickered and pulled out some cash from his pocket before putting them on the counter.

"Thanks for the meal!" Ed shouted to the man running the stand.

It was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in sight and the sunrays felt warm against Ed's back. Despite what had happened earlier and his headache, this could turn out to be a good day.

Unfortunately, appearances are deceptive.

A hand lashed out from an alley they just passed, barely missing Ed's head as he instinctively jumped out of the way. He turned to see who the attacker was and wasn't surprised to see the man with a cross-shaped scar over his face. Red eyes stared at him and Ed growled.

"That's really ugly of you to sneak up behind someone like that!"

"I don't care as long as it's the quickest way to finish you off," the man answered, his hand twitching slightly. He lashed out again, but Ed moved out of the way.

"Leave me alone, Scar!" He clapped his hands and slammed them against the wall. A pillar shot out from it and aimed for Scar's head, which he dodged easily. He put his hands against the wall, destroying it along with the pillar. Dust filled the air, making it difficult for the brothers to see.

"Nii-san, watch out!" Al yelled in panic, grabbing him by the hood and yanked him out of the way as the infamous hand shot out again.

Ed gritted his teeth and transmuted his automail into a blade. It was dangerous to be in close combat, but using alchemy during fights with Scar had many times proved to be a useless task.

His brother protested as he ran towards Scar. The man smirked a little, expecting the boy to try and impale him with the blade. Ed raised his automail as if preparing to do that.

The man's eyes widened slightly in surprise as the boy quickly got down and kicked him from below instead. The boot hit him right in the jaw and his head snapped painfully to the side. The unexpected blow caused him to lose his balance and he fell to the ground.

Blindly, he slammed his hand against the ground before Ed had time to do anything else. A big crack made its way towards him and he would have fallen in if he hadn't jumped out of the way in the last second.

Scar took the opportunity to get up to his feet and quickly put a hand against the wall. Al yelled for his brother in panic and grabbed him by the hood yet again. He wrapped two huge arms around him before leaning over him, protecting him from the rocks that seemed to be raining from the sky.

The clanking sound of rocks hitting metal was deafening for anyone standing nearby. There was no doubt that the suit of armor was damaged and dented after this. Al, however, couldn't care less. Alchemy could easily fix his body back to normal, but not his brother's.

Ed was keeping his eyes shut tight. The headache had gotten worse yet again. It felt like he was going to faint because of the pain.

And for a split second everything became pitch black.

Al let go of his brother when the rocks had stopped raining upon them. He took a step back and watched his brother's back. Ed just stood there as if he was paralyzed and Al wondered if his brother was in shock.

Then he realized something else. Scar was standing a few meters ahead. The man rarely seemed to show any kind of emotions, except determination and hate. Now there was confusion and… was there a hint of fear in those usually confident eyes?

"Nii-san, are you alright?" he asked concerned.

Ed didn't answer.

Scar's heart started to hammer in his chest. There were a few things that scared him. What he was now witnessing was one of them. Though the boy's eyes were still the same golden color, there seemed to be a shadow over them.

And something that looked like a mix of pure rage and madness.

Al reached for his brother's shoulder, wanting to see what was wrong with his brother. His phantom heart was in his throat when he was just a few inches from him.

"Don't touch him!" Scar warned, afraid his touch would trigger something in the boy.

He was right.

The moment Al's hand made contact with his shoulder, blue sparks suddenly surrounded Ed. Al stood there and watched in horror as his arm suddenly exploded into million pieces before him.

Scar's eyes were wide and he took a step back as the boy took a step forward. The whine of alchemy filled the air and the man could only guess what was going to happen next as he saw the cracks in the ground.

Al snapped out of his trance.

"Nii-san! What are you doing?!" he yelled. "Snap out of it!"

He wanted to reach out with his remaining arm and grab his brother by the shoulder. He never even had time to reach out before the ground whined loudly.

The ground suddenly disappeared underneath them.

They were falling into the darkness.

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Aaaaand cut! Reviews are appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging like that! Studies were in the way, but now I'm back with the second chapter. Thanks a bunch for favs/reviews! The response from you is what makes it so much fun to write!

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He was greeted by a white ceiling when he opened his eyes. He didn't know where he was, what time it was or why he was here. All he knew right now was that his body felt as heavy as lead and that he was lying in a bed.

Ed clumsily sat up and scanned the room. The absence of furniture and the mint colored walls were way too familiar for him. He had been here a couple of times in his life.

He was in a hospital.

"Nii-san, you're awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed in relief. Ed turned to the source of the voice. Golden eyes widened in horror at the sight of Al.

Al was a mess. His armor was dented and pieces of it were missing. There was a big hole where his right arm was supposed to be.

He couldn't remember why they were in this state. He didn't know when it all had turned black for him. The only conclusion his foggy brain could come to was that they either had been attacked or gotten into a fight with someone.

Al noticed the confused look on his brother's face and a frightening thought struck him. It was a possibility that the fall could have caused a memory loss. He had to prove himself wrong.

"What's your name?" Al blurted out. This seemed to snap Ed out of his state.

"What kind of question is that?" Ed asked and stared at Al like _he_ was suffering from memory loss.

"A very important one! Now answer me, what's your name?" Hearing the worried tone in Al's voice, Ed realized what he was up to and sighed.

"I'm fine, Al. Nothing to worry about." Glowing red eyes stared at him intensely, apparently he was still not satisfied with the answer. "Alright, it's Jack."

"Nii-san!" Al warned and Ed just snickered. That was proof enough for Al. Ed was being the troll he was notorious for.

Ed's expression became serious again. He remembered leaving Mustang's office, but after that it's like his memory has been wiped clean. It was frustrating and frightening not being able to remember what had happened afterwards. He barely had time to open his mouth before someone stepped into the room.

It was a nurse, accompanied by someone he didn't want to see right now.

Colonel Mustang.

Ed wanted to snarl at him for coming here. Mustang had a tendency to draw out the animalistic side of Ed. The nurse interrupted him before he could do so.

"Glad to see you're awake, Edward. How are you feeling?" she asked kindly.

Besides from a sore back and the fact that he was having a nasty headache, like someone had smashed him in the head, he was actually feeling fine. He gave her that as an answer and she nodded like she understood.

"I heard from your brother here that you fell a couple of meters. Luckily we didn't find any internal bleedings nor was anything broken. You must have a guardian angel on your side to have gotten away with only minor injuries."

"Yeah, I guess I have," Ed replied. He didn't want to tell her that he couldn't remember anything of what had happened.

"You will stay here during the night for observations. You should be able to leave in the morning."

Ed didn't want to stay longer than necessary in hospitals. Staying here during the night for "observations" was his definition of unnecessary. However, he decided to not pick this fight.

Mustang made a coughing sound from the doorway, probably on purpose. The nurse took it as a hint for her to leave them alone for a while.

"I'll leave and go tell the doctor that you're awake. Just call if you need anything, Edward." She gave him a warm smile and left the room. The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees in the room and there was a moment of silence. Ed turned his face to the window, but he could feel those damn onyx eyes in his neck. It was like Mustang was waiting for Ed to explain things and it annoyed him. He turned his head and glared at his superior officer.

"Well, why are standing there wasting time by not saying anything!" The annoyance in his voice was evident, but Mustang just looked at him calmly.

"I expect you to explain what happened. All I know is that the military found you in the sewers after what seemed to have been an explosion. I am here to get the details out of you. Now tell me what happened," the man said and folded his arms over his chest. It almost looked like a father wanting an explanation from his kid, which was disturbing for Ed.

"You're making it seem like I've done something wrong!"

"Wherever you're, there's always destruction involved," Mustang stated as if it was a fact. "And we all know that's what you do best, Fullmetal."

Ed childishly thought that this wasn't fair. He clenched his fists and shot a dark glare at the Colonel.

"If you must know, I can tell you this much: I don't remember what the hell happened after I tried to hand in that damn report!" Ed almost yelled. "You hear me, it's all blank afterwards!" There was this trace of panic in his voice. "If someone should be asking what happened, it should be me!"

Mustang was a bit taken aback by his subordinate's outburst and he frowned.

"Uhm," Al started hesitantly. "Excuse me Colonel, but may I be a part of the conversation? I can tell you what happened."

Both Ed's and Mustangs eyes landed on Al. Seeing the state the suit of armor was in, it was obvious he too had been involved in whatever had happened. Well, his brother was always involved in the things Ed was involved in.

"Of course, Alphonse. Go on."

He told them that Scar had attacked them on their way back to their dorms. He was generous with the details. When he came to the part where the stones had stopped raining upon them, he hesitated. There was this inner battle going on inside of the suit of armor right now.

Al had difficulties lying. He barely did. Now was one of those rare moments he considered to change the truth. What would happen if he told them that Ed was the reason his arm was destroyed and that he had caused a big hole in the ground by performing alchemy without even clapping his hands. Or even using is hands for that matter. What would the Colonel do with him? And most importantly, what would his brother think of himself? His brother carried enough weight on his shoulder and Al didn't want to add to that weight. Especially if this was, what he hoped, an accident that would never ever happen again.

His hesitation didn't pass by unnoticed by the two and Al shouldn't have expected it would have.

"Yes, Alphonse?" the Colonel interrupted his thoughts.

"Sorry, Colonel. It just occurred to me that I could have lost my brother." Al tried to cover it up with something that was actually true. It seemed to work since Mustang just nodded.

"Scar destroyed the ground when he realized that we had him cornered. We fell into the sewers. Luckily for my brother, the fall wasn't very high. He was unconscious when I got to him. I didn't dare moving him since I right then didn't know if he was badly injured. So I waited until the military came to our aid and then we ended up here," Al finished, his eyes locked on the Colonel.

"And how did you lose your arm again?" Mustang asked. The way he asked indicated that Al had missed that part, or even suspected that Al had left it out on purpose.

Al didn't hesitate this time.

"Scar destroyed it when I got in the way."

Mustang was biting the inside of his chin. For some reason he wasn't entirely convinced, even though he knew that Scar had attacked Alphonse before and Scar's typical way of escaping was going under the ground. From experience, he also knew that Ed's brother was a loyal person and wouldn't lie. He decided to leave it be.

"Thank you, Alphonse, this made it clearer. Maybe this helped refresh your brother's memory too," Mustang said and shot a glance at Ed.

Ed, who had been unusually quiet and trying to remember, looked up to meet his eyes.

"Sorry Colonel, but I still don't remember anything." Mustang almost looked concerned for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by that serious and slightly cold expression. Ed couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. Ed might have actually liked Mustang if the man would have showed that he cared for him. The lack of emotions made him doubt Mustang would miss him if he had been killed.

Ed suddenly realized that he was getting a bit too sensitive about this. Getting too sensitive about thoughts that involved his superior officer was very unlike him. Maybe the hit in the head affected him in some weird way.

Right now he wished he could say that magic word superior officers were privileged to use. The word 'dismissed'. People would leave without questioning as soon as that little word was uttered.

"Was there anything else?" Ed asked annoyed and let his eyes drop to his hands instead.

"Yes, don't forget to hand in the report," Mustang reminded him and a small smirk appeared on his face before he turned his back to the two brothers.

"Yeah, _as soon_ as I'm outa here I'll hand in the damned report," he said between gritted teeth. "_bastard," _he finished.

"I'll see you soon then," Mustang answered, unaffected by the nickname Ed used regularly.

The silence filled the room as soon as the man had left. Ed rubbed his bandaged forehead carefully and thought that his head must have gotten way too many hits during his life.

"I'll fix you, Al. I just need to get out of this hospital," he muttered the last sentence and stopped rubbing. "Lucky me my automail seems to be just fine. If I didn't get internal bleedings from the fall, I sure would have gotten it from Winry's wrench." He grimaced at the thought. Sometimes he was sure her wrath could take down any homunculi.

"Yeah," Al answered absent minded.

Ed looked at him examining. Al's eyes were directed to the window, seeming to be deep in thoughts. Ed couldn't help but get this déjà vu feeling and it suddenly felt like his windpipe shrank. The thought that struck him was that of an unpleasant experience involving his younger brother. Right then his armor was also a mess.

"What's wrong, Al?" he asked worried and Al snapped out of his own world.

"What?"

"You.. you're not thinking those thoughts again?" Al didn't understand what he meant.

"What thoughts, nii-san?"

"You know, after the fifth laboratory incident," Ed mumbled quietly.

Al suddenly felt guilty for making his brother worry over that.

"No, of course not! I was just thinking about other things," he replied quickly. "About unimportant things really," he added.

Ed let out a small sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, nii-san. I didn't mean to."

The doctor came in a moment later and checked to see if everything was fine with his patient. He told Ed what the nurse already had said before leaving the two alone for the rest of the night.

"Guess I better get some sleep," he said with a yawn and crawled under the covers. "See you in the morning, Al."

"Good night, nii-san."

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I know not much happened in this one, but it was a necessary chapter. I don't want to rush through this story and I'm sure you don't want it to be rushed. Hope you don't dislike Roy too much in this story, he'll get better in later chapters. Unlike Ed, I'm sure he cares about him. Please tell me what you think and I'll "see" you in the next chapter :)


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